Take It From an Ex-Republican: Learn to Fight Dirty

Any reasonably alert observer knows the vicious, unprincipled depths to which the Radical Right, i.e., the modern Republican Party and its hacks, will sink in their attempt to destroy Barack Obama. In case you need to see them all in one place, these are attacks that McCain and his thugs have ACTUALLY made:

Obama is a traitor

Obama may just be the AntiChrist.

Obama is a secret Muslim pro-terrorist Manchurian candidate.

Obama is a Marxist.

Obama is just a paper-thin "celebrity"

Obama hates the troops.

Obama is an ally of terrorists here in America.

Obama is an elitist who despises white middle class Americans.

Obama is simply an "affirmative action" candidate.

Obama is soft on crime.

Obama wants to kill live babies.

And the list goes on an on and on.

These observers have also seen, with varying degrees of outrage and disbelief, how McCain's huge fan club in the Corporate Media is doing everything it can to put McCain in the White House. (CNN's atrociously bad coverage of the convention is just one of a thousand examples). Republican hacks like Giuliani are allowed to spread lying bullshit with impunity. Right wing hate radio has gone into overdrive. And millions of ugly, lying emails are circulating. Since I was a Republican up until 1991, none of this surprises me, but I continue to be surprised by the inability of many of my beloved Democratic friends to understand something:

YOU NEED TO FIGHT DIRTY TO BEAT THESE REPUBLICAN ASSHOLES. Allow me to explain.

By "fight dirty" I do NOT mean make up lies about the Republicans.

I do not mean to ally ourselves with idiots like the so-called "Vietnam Veterans Against McCain".

I mean, we have to be willing to tell the ugly truth about this son of a bitch again and again and again

We need to hit him on his philandering, lying, and cheating on his loyal first wife HARD. A lot of Americans hate people who cheat like that, including many social conservatives. Mention it AGAIN AND AGAIN.

We need to call McCain what he is: A DAMNED LIAR who will do or say ANYTHING to win. And yes, we need to use the word LIAR. The Swiftboat Assholes used that term against Kerry EXPLICITLY. It was a falsehood coming from them. When we call McCain a liar, it is simply the bare truth.

We need to call McCain a CROOK, because it's true. From his wife's Mob-infested family to his connections with shady underworld figures In Arizona to his corrupt land deals to the Keating Five scandal to covering up 95% of the Abramoff evidence, McCain is simply a slimy, two-bit hustler. Start hitting him in those terms.

We need to remind people of how McCain has basically simply defecated on veterans in America, highlighting his atrocious, anti-veteran voting record. We need to remind people of how McCain has attacked POW-MIA groups. And we need to remind people that REAL heroes don't run around reminding people of their heroism every 5 minutes. I had four uncles who served in the Pacific in World War II. I never ONCE heard any of them brag about their service--not once. McCain is dragging every veteran through the mud every time he uses his POW card to deflect any criticism. That shit has GOT to stop.

And we need to stop the constant genuflecting to McCain's service. Remember the fucking Purple Heart bandages from the 2004 Republican Convention if you don't agree.

I know what some of you will say. You'll say things like "We don't lower ourselves to their level" and "we take the high road". My God, I just shake my head in disbelief when I read or hear stuff like that. When I was a Republican we used to LOVE to run against Democrats like that, because they didn't have the spine and the guts to stick up for themselves. They didn't do what needed to be done. And they lost--again and again and again. Republican views are perverse and atrocious, but Republicans will do ANYTHING to win. That's why this Ayers shit might stick. It's why the Radical Muslim shit is still circulating.

Take it from an ex-Republican: the Republican Convention next week is going to be a NON STOP HATE FESTIVAL AGAINST OBAMA. There will be NOTHING but the crudest, most vicious attacks on him. You and I both know it. And if, by 5 September, McCain is in the lead nationally, it will be very hard to overturn that lead. And don't give me this crap about the debates, because the Corporate Media will set the bar impossibly high for Obama and ridiculously low for McCain. If McCain doesn't keel over or wet himself, he'll be declared the winner. Remember the first 2000 Debate if you don't buy that argument.

Too many of my fellow Democrats are just too G-d damned NICE. It's part of why I love you. You have decent instincts and a sense of fair play. But we're in a WAR we must win. The Republicans are your ENEMIES. I guarantee that's how they see you and talk about you. Many of them hate you. Some of them actively advocate killing people like you. (Michael Reagan called for Howard Dean to be killed, for example. Limbaugh has called for the killing of liberals. Exterminationist rhetoric is very common on the Right.) If these people win again, in what should be a Democratic landslide year, the consequences will be tragic. Every loyal, patriotic kid who is killed in the wars McCain will start will, in one sense, be blood on our hands because we weren't willing to tell the ugly truth--that John McCain is a mentally unstable, lying crook.

Barack won't do it. The Democratic Convention won't do it. The fierce language of truth will be up to us, the soldiers in the campaign trenches, to use. Our country is dying. If we don't win this because we wanted to play nice, it will be the ultimate betrayal.

Trust me on this--I've seen this kind of right wing hate campaign from the inside. It's part of why I had to leave. But you know something:

It works.

Get used to it. And roll up your sleeves.

And G-d damn it, FIGHT DIRTY.